The Count 2012

Every year VIDA Women in Literary Arts conducts a survey to count female author representation in major literary periodicals. This survey isn't about quality or good reviews, but just about the representation, number of reviews or general press coverage that women authors are getting. The results can be viewed through a wide variety of lenses, but the graphs are admittedly a little shocking.

It would be interesting to know how the publishing numbers break down, but a quick peek at the New York Times Best Sellers hardcover list of the top 16 titles shows an exact 50/50 female to male representation. Which to me (unsing completely unscientific methods) shows that books written by women are just as popular or being read in the same numbers as books written by men.

So does it matter then that literary periodicals aren't showing the love for female authors? Maybe, maybe not. But books by Zadie Smith, Lauren Groff, and Michelle Moran may have been hanging out on my to-read list for a little bit too long.